Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has announced his most significant wartime Cabinet shakeup yet, tapping a new defense minister as Kyiv ramps up an anti-graft crackdown and presses a grinding offensive in the country’s occupied south.
Zelenskiy named Rustem Umerov, the head of Ukraine’s State Property Fund, to replace Oleksii Reznikov, who has battled allegations of graft in military procurement by subordinates on his watch.
Reznikov, who has denied wrongdoing and informed the president this summer that he was overworked, shook up top positions in the ministry in February to weed out sleaze.
Photo: AFP
He submitted his resignation yesterday, he wrote on the social media platform X.
The British government now expects him to be named as Kyiv’s ambassador to London, although the appointment has yet to be confirmed, people familiar with the situation said.
He was not personally involved in corruption and is not under investigation, a person familiar with Ukraine’s graft probe said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“I think the ministry needs new approaches and another format of cooperation with the military and with society,” Zelenskiy said on Sunday in his daily video address. “The parliament will be asked to approve the decision this week.”
Zelenskiy has ramped up a crackdown on corruption, which remains a major concern for allies as they continue to pour weapons and cash into Ukraine to help it beat back Russia’s invasion, retake occupied territory and stabilize the war-ravaged economy.
The president last month fired all of the army’s top draft officers, following the dismissal of a number of lawmakers, including from his own party. Reznikov’s removal might help give Zelenskiy cover against concern that corruption is undermining the armed forces as Ukrainian soldiers fight Russia at the front.
Umerov, 41, has been praised by anti-corruption activists for his efforts to clean up graft at the State Property Fund.
He has been involved in war-related talks, including about prisoner swaps and the grain deal that allowed Ukraine to export food via the Black Sea before Russia pulled out in July. A fluent Turkish speaker, he worked for the leader of Ukraine’s Crimean Tatars after Moscow annexed the peninsula in 2014 and has focused on the protection of human rights of its indigenous people.
He also has extensive ties in Turkey and the Middle East, where countries often seek to play go-betweens with the Kremlin and Kyiv.
“If after a thousand visits there you are not treated as a brother, it means you might be some kind of wretch,” he said in an interview with Ukrayinska Pravda, referring to his dealings in Turkey. “Plus, I speak Turkish.”
US President Joe Biden, asked by reporters near his home in Delaware, said he was aware that Zelenskiy intends to replace his defense minister. He declined to comment further.
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